PIDGIN- AND CREOLE LANGUAGES Depictions in British and American Literature between 1719 and 1843 Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des Magistergrades an der Geisteswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Markus STERNAT am Institut für Anglistik Begutachterin: Ao. Univ-Prof. Dr. Hermine Penz Graz, 2011 1 0 Table of Contents 1 Introduction page 5 2 Acknowledgements page 7 PART I: LINGUISTIC THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3 History of Pidgins and Creoles page 8 4 Pidgins page 10 4.1 Etymology page 10 4.2 Definitions and Characteristics page 11 5 Creoles page 14 5.1 Etymology page 14 5.2 Definitions and Characteristics page 14 5.3 Summary of chapters 4-5 page 16 6 Early Discussions of Pidgins and Creoles page 17 7 Theories of Origin page 20 7.1 Nautical Jargon Theory page 20 7.2 Baby Talk and Foreigner Talk Theory page 20 7.3 Monogenesis and Relexification Theory page 22 7.4 Independent Parallel Development Theory = Polygenesis page 22 7.5 Summary page 23 8 Linguistic Development page 24 8.1 Jargon Stage page 24 8.2 Stabilization Stage page 25 8.3 Expansion Phase page 25 8.4 Creolization page 26 8.5 Summary page 28 9 Linguistic Features page 29 9.1 Phonology page 29 2 9.2 Morphology page 30 9.3 Grammar and Syntax page 30 9.4. Vocabulary and Idioms page 31 9.5 Summary page 32 10 De-creolization and post-creole continuum page 33 PART II: CREOLES AND THEIR DEPICTION IN LITERATURE 11 Gullah page 35 11.1 Lorenzo Dow Turner´s Research page 35 11.2 People page 36 11.2.1 Origins page 36 11.2.2 History page 37 11.3. Contemporary Gullah page 38 11.4 Language page 39 11.4.1 General Introduction page 40 11.4.2 Language History page 40 11.4.3 Phonology page 42 11.4.4 Grammar and Syntax page 44 11.4.5 Words and Phrases page 45 11.5 Written Records page 47 11.6 “The Gold-Bug” page 50 11.6.1 Plot Summary page 50 11.6.2 Language Analysis page 52 11.7 Summary page 60 12 Trinidad page 62 12.1 Background Information page 62 12.1.1 General Introduction page 62 12.1.2 Lise Winer´s Research page 62 12.1.3 History page 63 12.1.4 Kwèyòl page 66 3 12.2. Trinidadian English page 67 12.2.1 Phonology page 67 12.2.2 Syntax and Morphology page 69 12.2.3 Tenses page 70 12.2.4 Words and Phrases page 71 12.3. “Robinson Crusoe” page 72 12.3.1 Plot Summary page 72 12.3.2 Language Analysis page 74 12.4 Summary page 83 13 Conclusion page 84 14 Zusammenfassung in deutscher Sprache page 89 15 Bibliography page 94 16 Webliography page 96 4 1 Introduction This diploma thesis is entitled “Pidgin- and Creole Languages: Depictions in British and American Literature between 1719 and 1843”. The first part of my paper is of theoretical nature. For a start, I will point out the history, etymology, definitions and characteristics of Pidgins and Creoles. Then I will briefly refer to earlier discussions of Pidgins and Creoles in the 19th century. Next I will introduce the four most widespread Theories of Origin, which is followed by an exploration of the four stages during the linguistic development of Pidgins and Creoles. After that, I summarize grammatical aspects such as phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. To round up the topic, I will explain the afterlife of Pidgins and Creoles, de-creolization and the post-creole continuum. The second part is my own research on the representation of Pidgins and Creoles in famous pieces of British and American Literature. One chapter is on Gullah, a variety spoken along the south-eastern coast of the United States. I found several useful websites by Gullah institutions on its history, people and language. Edgar Allan Poe, who spent more than one year in Charleston, South Carolina, where Gullah is spoken, depicts this dialect in his short popular story “The Gold-Bug”. The second Creole that I will investigate is that spoken on the island of Trinidad. Information is taken from the diploma theses by my former fellow students Eva Kramberger and Dorothea Martz as well as homepages by people who care for this language. This Creole is depicted in Daniel Defoe´s novel “Robinson Crusoe”. I took into account writing about the variety Tok Pisin and the “South Sea Tales” by Jack London as well. Yet numerous pieces on Tok Pisin have been published already. Furthermore, literary critics argued that the “South Sea Tales” were written when Jack London had already surpassed his heyday of writing and produced these tales just for financial reasons so that critics did not bother to seriously assess his works any more. After reading these stories, I came to agree with this opinion. 5 Moreover, the Gullah variety and Edgar Allan Poe´s short story “The Gold-Bug” are not as well known as they would deserve to because both are fascinating. “The Gold-Bug” is mainly praised for the aspects of cryptography and treasure hunting whereas the element of the Gullah variety is mostly unknown. Besides, Daniel Defoe´s novel “Robinson Crusoe” is generally regarded just as a youth book and thus reduced to the suspenseful adventures of Englishman Crusoe and indigenous Friday on an exotic island; hardly anyone knows that the Trinidadian Creole is another major aspect of this literary classic. 6 2 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf for her seminar on linguistic varieties, for offering the topic of Pidgins and Creoles to me as well as for supporting my idea to focus on Pidgins and Creoles in Literature. Moreover, I would like to express special thanks to Dr. Hermine Penz for hosting my diploma thesis, for her patience with me and for her useful suggestions to improve my diploma thesis. Furthermore, I was lucky enough to come across the diploma research papers on Pidgins and Creoles by two of my former fellow students, Eva Kramberger and Dorothea Martz, which both gave me a glimpse of what would await me and also useful guidelines how to write a diploma research paper. Next, I am grateful to Peter Mühlhäusler, whose book on “Pidgin and Creole Linguistics”, especially chapter 9 on “Creoles in Literature”, inspired me to do research on this topic. Last but not least, I am obliged to my family and friends who always believed in me and supported me also in difficult phases of my university career. 7 PART I: LINGUISTIC THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3 History of Pidgins and Creoles Pidgins and Creoles have been spoken ever since by humans. It is assumed that in ancient High Cultures, Egyptian, Sumerian and Chinese soldiers on the borders might have used a Pidgin variety to communicate with what they called ‘barbarians’. Likewise, in Greek and Latin plays, foreigners were depicted as speaking the language only poorly, wherefore a Pidgin was needed to talk to them. During the medieval times, traders and crusaders in Southern and Eastern Europe spoke a Lingua Franca, which was a Pidgin derived from Romance languages. (cf. Hall 1966: 3-4) Not just in Europe but all over the world, Pidgins came into existence wherever speakers of different mother tongues had contact. Before the arrival of Europeans in Northern America, Indian people in the Northwest of the continent spoke a Pidgin variety of Chinook for trade. (cf. Hall 1966: 4) Since the 15th century, wherever West Europeans went to conquer indigenous territories, they always applied the same linguistic pattern: they were too fond of their culture to care for the language of the native tribe. As a consequence, the indigenous people had to struggle to make themselves comprehensible by copying what they heard from the whites yet with limited success. Thus the Europeans concluded that the natives´ speech behaviour was incomplete because they were mentally inferior. For this reason, the whites would see no point in wasting their language and would imitate the indigenous people´s simplified language. The ingenuous aborigines would take this for the Standard language and would continue speaking this way, being unaware of all their mistakes. (cf. Hall 1966: 4-5) Early documents of Pidgin English go back to Canton in China where the English set up their factory in 1664, wherefore a Pidgin variety was established quickly as the English saw no possibility of acquiring the Chinese language. 8 This Chinese Pidgin English was spoken widely between Chinese and English businesspeople and traders until 1843. With China´s gradual opening to the West and the decrease of Western influence in the later 19th century, this low-prestige Pidgin English was rejected, ousted and replaced by Standard English, especially by young and well-educated people. (cf. Hall 1966: 7-9) Similarly, in Australia the first European settlers and the aborigines used a Pidgin language in order to communicate. This variety became steadily more restricted and eventually substituted by Standard English in schools. (cf. Hall 1966: 10) The 19th century was a period when many African slaves were forced on rural areas and plantations. They were taken away from their families and had to live with fellow slaves of many different ethnic backgrounds. The result was a general breakdown of communication. This clever tactic was of use for the plantation owners as the slaves were easier to control without the possibility of talking to each other. In order to be able to speak to each other, they had to find a suitable variety.